


[Podcast & Text] One Year Of Podfic

by Djapchan



Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Beginner's Tips For Recording Podfics, Gen, Podcast
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 17:36:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29579682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Djapchan/pseuds/Djapchan
Summary: This podcast will take you on a journey through some of the experiences I made during the last year (2020), in which I created a lot of podfics (most of them for Good Omens) - some of them on my own and some of them as multivoice projects with others. It contains a few beginners tips to hopefully help out others, who are thinking about starting to create their own podfics.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 4





	[Podcast & Text] One Year Of Podfic

****

**Stream** the podcast on [anchor](https://anchor.fm/djap/episodes/Podcast-One-Year-Of-Podfic-eqm0cn)  
 **Download** the podfic via [mediafire](https://www.mediafire.com/file/p6kwbenese295w9/One_Year_of_Podfic.mp3/file)

If you want to skip some parts, here's a small overview of the content:

1\. English as language of the fandom 1:16  
2\. Getting Started 3:39  
3\. The Permission Dance 7:39  
4\. Community 9:52  
5\. Podficcing Events 11:42  
6\. Recording 13:35  
7\. Editing 18:36  
8\. NSFW content in Podfics 21:31  
9\. Comments on your works 23:29  
10\. Streaming or Downloading 24:40  
11\. Cover Art 27:07  
12\. Music and Sounds 28:10  
13\. Posting 29:23

 **Music:**  
[A Little Bit Down](https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Derek_Clegg/man-on-the-run/a-little-bit-down) by Derek Clegg  
From the Free Music Archive  
[CC BY-NC-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)

**Cover Art:**   
[TheLordOfLaMancha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLordOfLaMancha/pseuds/TheLordOfLaMancha)

...

Hello my dear listeners,

My name is Djap and if you are listening to this Podcast you probably expected a Good Omens Podfic from me. Today I offer you something a bit different though, so feel free to skip this pod, if this is not to your tastes.

Today I'll bring you a few tips on how to successfully create podfics as a beginner. This won't be a manual full of technical facts, as there are many articles and pods out there, which cover these far better than I ever could. But I do intend to share a bit of my experiences during the last year, where I started creating podfics in earnest and I thought some of these might be helpful to others.

So, here's my list of 13 tipps to start creating podfics

1\. English as Language of the Fandom

For most people that I know, English is the language of fandom, so it is English that most people use to write stories and to comment or talk to fellow fans. It connects people from all over the world and gives us the chance to share our stories with as many people as possible. Therefore most podfics are recorded in English, whether that is our native language, or not.

I am from Germany and frankly spoken, I hated English at school. I was terrible at it and didn't want anything to do with it. Then I discovered how many fanfictions were out there that I simply couldn't read because I didn't speak the language and I realized there was only one way to change that. Just recently I learned that I actually share this experience with others, but it still makes me twice as shy whenever I write a fanfic or record a pod... but, let me tell you another truth I just recently realized: Most people who'll listen to your works, won't care about that at all!

Yes, sometimes we need to take extra steps like looking up what a new word means or how they are pronounced. Sometimes we misspeak or use an idiom wrong. I don't think it should stop any of us from creating or recording our stories. Yes mistakes will happen, maybe a lot of them at the beginning, but as long as we keep learning and try to improve our works every single day, others will enjoy them as well. Fandom for me is about sharing and the community and growing together.

As a special tip for new non native speakers that helped me a lot: If you are insecure about how a word should be pronounced try forvo.com. It's a life saver!

2\. Getting Started

When I started out recording podfics, I only did it for myself. I was shy and insecure about my English and about the fanfics I actually wanted to pod – with most of my favorites being quite smutty pieces, it wasn't something to be shared easily and something that I used to consider very private.

The thing is, when you start out with podfics, everything kind of seems to take forever to get finished. You have to learn the program you use, the editing and so much other stuff that you didn't even think about at first. It's very intimidating, but then again there are also so many helpful resources out there and it's normal to learn along the way. Just stick with it and what you want to do! It'll be worth it, I promise.

If you choose your first story to podfic, there are a few criteria that can make life so much easier at the beginning. Try to find a fanfic that is

a) very short  
b) similar to the way you actually speak (especially so when it's not your native language)  
c) something you really, REALLY like.

Let me get into a bit of detail here:

When I say short, I mean short. Look for a 100 words or 200 words drabble or at least something below 1000 words. It sounds like that isn't much, but at the beginning, it can be extremely frustrating when you are still learning your new skills and it looks like you'll never be able to finish your first pod. 1000 words equal about 10 minutes of pod for me and I used to need about an hour to edit 10 minutes when I started out and about 20 to 30 minutes to record it. That has significantly changed over the last year, but editing and recording still eats up a lot more time then one would think. So better start small and experience the accomplishment, when you finish the first one instead of giving up halfway through - out of frustration.

If you used to write fanfictions, start out with one of your own pieces. Yes, it's okay if that feels weird. I still don't like recording pods of fanfictions that I have written and I know that a lot of us feel similar. But it's the easiest for you to start out recording those, because you know them by heart already and they are close to the way how you normally express yourself. This again goes double, if you are recording in another language than your native tongue. It might not seem like such a big deal (and maybe it isn't one for you), but different styles can be a very frustrating stumbling stone that you didn't see coming otherwise.

The most important part is to choose something that you really like though. A lot of people find editing mind numbingly boring and having to edit long passages of a story you don't particularly care about can be excruciatingly painful. Another reason why you should avoid longer stories right at the beginning – especially if you are anything like me. There are a lot of longer stories out there that I love, but that I'd never podfic simply because I would feel extremely bored to read through 100000 words just because I loved the twist at the end – which is my favorite scene. If you pick something to record, try to go for something that you like from the beginning through to the end.

3\. The Permission Dance

At some point you will probably feel confident enough with the result to share what you recorded with the rest of the fandom (whether that may be right from the start or after you recorded already for a time only for your own enjoyment doesn't really matter)

If it is something that you have written yourself, you can just go ahead and share your work, but if it is a podfic of somebody else's work, you might want to add another step first.

In my experience most members of the podfic community will first ask for permission, if they want to record a work. Some authors have so-called blanket permission in their profile and there even are tools that can help you to quickly check whether an author has such a statement or not. Personally, if I don't find a blanket permission of the author anywhere, I'll simply leave a comment for the author on the work I want to podfic.

Sadly this can be a frustrating process as well, because you won't always get an answer as some authors simply don't answer their comments and if they do, it might not be the answer you wanted. In my experience this often varies between fandoms but Good Omens for example has a lot of authors who will be very excited by your question and will give you very enthusiastic permission though.

I started out recording pods only for my personal pleasure, but when that changed, I soon got in the habit of asking for permission first before I started to work on a pod. There are only few things more frustrating than putting a lot of time and effort into something that you can't share, because the author simply doesn't answer their permission requests.

A permission request could include the following:

a) a statement, that you don't intend to ask for money for your work (either from the author or your listeners)  
b) where you intend to publish the podfic  
c) that you'll link back and how you intend to credit the author

4\. Community

Fandom used to be a very lonely experience for me in the past, but at the beginning of 2020 I realized that interacting with the community can make our lives much, much better.

Unfortunately this isn't true for every single fandom or person you'll meet in any of the fandoms. Some people or communities may turn out to be toxic and better left alone, but speaking for the podficcing or Good Omens community, I'd say it's absolutely worth it to check it out!

Personally I am not on Twitter or Tumblr as too much social media exposure will give me anxiety, but I can recommend Discord as a good place to meet and start out. If you are looking at starting to create podfics, you might want to join Podfichat. It is a large community which will be able to offer you ressources and help for pretty much every question you might have on the matter. Why struggle alone with the new technologies and acquiring new skills, if you can ask for help?

It will also help you to find potential multivoice projects to join, if that is something you'd like to do in the future. Not everybody likes to organize or is fond of huge amounts of editing, but participating in a multivoice will help others out and give you a chance for new experiences and new skills along the way with only small amounts of work that you need to invest. In my experience recording a whole podfic can be quite different from just recording narration or voice lines for a multivoice, so participating in multivoice pods can only broaden your horizon.

5\. Podficcing Events

If you are part of the community already, it will probably be easy to pick up on any events in the podfic community but you might also find them easily on social media. For example these events may include challenges around certain topics (for example Pod-O-Ween, an event that took place around Halloween) or gift exchanges around the Holidays (anonymous or as part of a certain community) and many, many others.

A relatively new one in which I have participated twice now is Voiceteam, which takes place on Discord and AO3. It is a challenge where podficcers build groups and try to fulfill some challenges together to earn points and compete against the other teams. There is no prize to win other than allowing the challanges to push us a little out of our comfort zones by asking us to try out new things in our podfics, that we haven't done before.

The great thing about Voiceteam is that it doesn't force you to do anything you don't want to – you can take part as much or as little as you want. You are offered an array of challenges and you can decide for yourself, which ones you want to take on and tackle with (or without) your team mates.

Challenges included in the past:

live readings

FILKs

multivoice pods

commenting on other's work

creating memes

challenges around Cover Art

generally trying out new things like recording lying down or on a walk

playing around with sound effects

creating Oral Non!Fic

organizing anthologies

editing the recordings of other team members

repodding already existing pods

to only name a few.

6\. Recording

Starting Out with podfic you will hear a lot about how people record and what programs they use and how they prepare their room and such things. Generally I think it's important to take one step at a time. Don't try to do all of it 'right' the first time around. In general, there is no right or wrong in the first place. Just try to have fun and create something that you like.

If recording a pod on your phone and posting it without editing it too much, will get you started with pods, go for it! There is always room for improvement for every single one of us - regardless whether you just start learning something new or whether you've been doing it for years.

That said, here are a few tips for recording that I collected in the past years. These are by no means guidelines for 'proper' recording – it's just things that worked for me. For you completely other things might be the key.

For me recording standing up gives better results than sitting

recording before work in the wee morning hours reduces unwanted noises and with me being a morning person, I make actually less recording mistakes

snapping or clapping after a mistake seems to work great for others, but absolutely doesn't work for me. Instead I just calmly jump back to where I messed up and read the sentence as often as I need to, until I get it right

laughing at your own reading or pronunciation mistakes is fun (and makes for great bloopers) but it also colors your voice in a way that you might not be aware at that moment. I only continue reading after a laugh, when I'm sure my voice is even again

a better microphone can make all the difference – but a better mic doesn't have to be expensive and not one type of mic fits everybody. If you have money for a new mic, investigate first, what might suit you best

BREATHE. If the way you're currently recording makes your breathing go all weird, take a mental step back and breathe, before continuing. On a side note – it's perfectly normal that you might struggle with that (a lot) at the beginning, especially as a not native speaker. Just continue. Practice will make it better and much easier!

try to keep the same distance to your mic while you record – even small things like turning your head will change the sound. Also try to find a good distance for your mic – too far away but also too close can affect the quality negatively

I always have my recording program open, where I can see it while I record and check frequently, whether it is running as it should. Nothing is more painful than a recording hiccup that you only realize happened after you finished your recording!

pay attention to your voice. Don't overdo it. If you're not used to talking for long periods at a time, take breaks where it makes sense – for example when a new chapter starts or a new paragraph. Try to avoid making breaks in the middle of a paragraph though, if possible

I never record without a warm tea next to me to soothe my voice (but there are many, many other tipps how to go easy on your voice and create good voice quality out there)

remember to not start speaking before you are at least 5 to 10 seconds into your recording. You'll need this time later during editing

If you record somebody yelling in the pod, keep an eye on your recording program – there is really no good way to fix an over amplified part of a recording – so the best way is to make sure your recordings are not over amplified. If it happens, take a step or two back from your mic and try to keep a calmer voice while 'yelling'. I know that sounds counterproductive, but while emotion is important in recordings, over amplified files are just generally very painful on the ears. In my opinion it's always better to have a less emotional delivery of a scene than one that makes you flinch in pain every single time you listen to it (but again, others might have different opinions on that).

7\. Editing

There are as many tips for editing as there are for recording. Personally I can only speak for Audacity since I have been using this program right from the start and never switched to another one. I do know that others are also fond of using garageband for example.

Audacity is free and there are tons and tons of tutorials to find on Youtube on how to use the program and how to create certain effects. There are also a ton of plug-ins to add even more functionality to an already very useful resource. The only thing you need to pay attention to when watching any tutorials, is the Audacity version that the person is using in the tutorial. Because so many people use the program, it's constantly under development, so sometimes functionalities may have changed.

If you start editing there are a few things that will help improve the general quality of your recording.

I normally use the following basics:

\- noise reduction

\- Equalizer to add a treble and a bass boost

\- compressor

\- normalize

I don't know enough about the technical side to explain these, but these are usually the tipps you get when you google 'How to make my voice sound better on recordings using Audacity'

Sometimes I also manually adjust the volume of certain passages to make them flow better together. I will also remove some breathing and mouth clicks if they are very loud or seem disturbing, although I do try not to overdo it on this front. The latter is especially important when I work on multivoice pods, because it can sound very weird if one person takes a breath and another person speaks. But this is another personal preference – I know others don't remove any of their mouth noises and still create awesome pods!

There are many different ways to edit. Some use a clicker or clapping to jump from one mess-up to the next. Some work backwards and start at the end of a recording. Some stop the recording to edit along the way. Personally I prefer to record everything that I need, and then work my way slowly from start to end while editing. What will work best for you? I have no idea – you'll have to figure that one out for yourself. :)

8\. NSFW Content

If you are familiar with any of my podfics you may know that a lot of them have smutty content. When I started out I didn't think I'd ever be able to record smut - especially not if I was planning to share the pod in question. I know that a lot of people starting with podfics feel the same and for some that may never change, which is perfectly fine. Some don't have any issues with it at all and can record smut right away.

It did change for me at some point, so I just started slow and easy, with pods that had a short NSFW scene and I slowly worked my way up to the rest. The first time I recorded smut, my face was flamingly hot and I couldn't stop giggling. As you may imagine I never published that one. The next time was easier, the next even easier still. By now you can pretty much give me anything and I will just calmly read it for you without even batting a single eyelash. All it really takes is practise - the rest will sort itself out on its own.

If you record any NSFW pod (be it for smutty or violence reasons) please just make sure to tag it appropriately. With podfics the same decency rules will apply as for any other works - be it written or drawn.

On a side note – if you record smutty pods and are looking forward for comments on your works, be prepared that you will get less comments for them – even more people might listen to those than to your other works, but in general people are often shy and less inclined to leave comments on smutty works – regardless of how much they enjoyed them, which leads me directly to step

9\. Comments

As a general rule be prepared to not get many comments. If you used to write before and got many comments, you might even be appalled at how few comments podfics will generate in comparison. I think part of it might be that there are only so many things you can actually comment on, in a podfic – especially if the podficcer has not written the fic themselves.

People might enjoy your voice, the reading style, the music or sounds you choose, maybe your choice of the fic you decided to pod... but that's about it. Most other things that come to mind usually concern the plot of the story – so they should go to the author and the people writing comments, know that as well.

I added this in here, because it sometimes might feel to you like nobody likes what you are doing – but not getting any comments doesn't mean that at all. A much safer way to judge this, is by looking at your stats or – if you decide to offer that – at how many people downloaded your pod.

10\. Streaming or Downloading?

So your podfic is finished, now how to post it?

I have not spent much time on other platforms, so I can only give you tips for AO3 and the streaming platforms that I personally use, but I hope this can be still helpful for you.

The Archive of Our Own (AO3) doesn't offer a player for podfics and doesn't offer hosting the file. But since most of the fics I record are shared on AO3 it is easiest to post the podfics there as well, since the archive makes it so easy to connect both related works.

This means you'll find other sides to host your files though depending on whether you want to offer streaming or download links (or both).

Personally I prefer to offer both to any potential listener as both have pros and cons. I don't like being dependent on streaming to have my favorite pods available, so I usually try to download them whenever I can. This way I can listen to them when I walk the dog, lie in bed or sit in a plane – where my mobile data for example otherwise might not be available or my connection is very spotty at best. Other people resent downloading for fear of viruses or clogging up space on their phone. All of these are valid concerns, so it's always a good idea to offer your pods in different ways, if you want as many people as possible to be able to enjoy it. Another issue might be that some providers are actually not available in some countries, which can also complicate things.

Here's a list of providers I have seen so far:

Mediafire

Dropbox

Google

Internet archive

Soundcloud

Anchor

I use a mix of Google, Mediafire and Anchor, while the latter will also be able to distribute your works to Spotify and other Streaming platforms, if you wish to do so. In my case I use Spotify, as it will also allow me to convert the Spotify file into an embedded Player, which can be posted on AO3. I have seen similar things for people who use Soundcloud or the internet archive for example.

11\. Cover Art

Technically a podfic doesn't need any cover art, so you don't have to bother with this part of the process. I do recommend some kind of cover art if you use streaming platforms though, because it will help with visibility. It doesn't have to be a specified one though – for example I commissioned one Good Omens image for my Anchor/Spotify account that I usually use for all basic GO pods I record.

I don't like creating Cover Art and have created - I think not more than 10 of them in total – even though I used to draw and create art in my past. But sometimes I do have special cover art for multivoice projects or for example recurring pods like the prophecies for O Lord Heal This Server.

These were only possible thanks to the awesome people in the podfic community, who've helped me out in the past - so kudos to all of you!

12\. Music & Sounds

Technically you also don't need any music or sound effects in your pod, but they might give your pods a cool extra kick and make them even more enjoyable and captivating.

If you use music and sound effects, please make sure to use free music. You can for example check out the music on the freemusicarchive.org or free sound effects on freesound.org. Both platforms will also instruct you on how to credit the music you used, which is also something that you should be doing when you post your finished podfic. Those people have given you music or sounds to make your work better – the least you can do is to say thanks by properly crediting them for it. Keep an eye out for a link that says 'This is attributed under' – which will take you to the license under which circumstances you can use the music/sound.

If you want to use a certain song that isn't available for free (for example if you record a songfic), you can always try to sing it yourself or ask a friend to sing it for you as an alternative.

13\. Posting

You've done all the work, decided how you want to share it, maybe even have Cover Art and added music and sounds, now how to proceed?

There are many different ways how to share your work. As with everything else I shared today, I recommend taking it slow, one step at a time. There is nothing wrong with basically sharing just the basic podfic with no extras. Creating your first podfic and feeling happy enough about it that you want to share it, is already a huge accomplishment and you can also come back at any time in the future, when you have learned new skills to update your post.

It helped me a lot to create a file where I saved all the HTML and posting tipps I gathered along the way – now I can always fall back on it, when I post something new.

How you want your post to look may have many different faces. It helps to look at what other podfic creators do, to find what will work best for you.

And that's it from me for today. If you are new to podficcing and were hoping to find some general tips or if you were just generally interested in what is involved in creating podfics, I hope I could provide you with some useful information

If I'd had to summarize this podcast I'd probably say something like:

Please, have fun! Your work doesn't have to be perfect – especially not at the beginning! If you do what you enjoy and what gives you pleasure, you will automatically learn along the way and get better and better. In my opinion the only true way to fail, is by NOT trying something new that you really want to do.

If you try it and it doesn't give you as much joy as you thought? That's also perfectly fine. Congratulations, you just learned something new about yourself. Shrug, smile and try something else. <3

Thank you for listening and pod on!

Lots of hugs, Djap


End file.
